Alex Fevola shares heartache over Brendan’s affair with Lara Bingle

Brendan Fevola’s wife has told of the humiliation she felt following his affair and the hurt of “becoming the butt of jokes” for her husband’s indiscretions.

Alex Fevola has spoken of the public humiliation she felt after it emerged her husband Brendan had an affair with Lara Bingle.

Fevola said the heartbreak she suffered on learning Brendan had cheated with the young model was worsened by becoming the butt of jokes.

She insists she doesn’t blame Bingle, now married to Sam Worthington, for her part in the situation 16 years ago.

“I think that was probably the hardest part of all of it was it was as though we were just a joke,’’ Alex told Mia Freedman on the No Filter podcast.

“That’s what I never understood. At the time it was so heartbreaking to me and my family and my children and yet everybody in the media were making jokes and just making fun of us in general.”

Alex Fevola with family. From left: Leni, 15, Alex, Tobi, 3, Lulu, 12, Brendan and Mia, 22. Picture: Nicki Connolly

“I understood there’d been a lot of publicity around Brendan and if you have a public profile you’ve got to cop everything that goes with it but I just felt it was so insensitive.

“Some of the people that did that to me and made fun of me were women with children and families and I just thought how can you think this is funny? I guess people that don’t know you, it’s a distant thing.”

Fevola said there was little to no sympathy for her plight. She has opened up on her life after the release of her book, Silver Linings.

“I think it goes back to being a WAG, ‘well you’re married to a footballer what do you expect?’

“That was the underlining message I was receiving so there was little to no sympathy because what did I expect? Do I agree with it? No, but I think the other misconception is that people constantly assumed you couldn’t actually love that footballer.”

Fevola says she received little sympathy because she was a WAG. Picture: Nicki Connolly

“You’re with him for the money, you’re with him for the lifestyle. First of all when we first got together I was supporting him. He was a young player, pretty much unknown.

“I was in a great place and ready to fall in love, I’d met this great guy and he was fantastic with my daughter (Mia) so to me I legitimately fell head over heels with this man.

“And the fact he played football was something that didn’t come into the picture til further down the track. It was something I didn’t realise I was signing up for.

“People’s idea of the relationship was that it probably wasn’t authentic. I think that’s why people were able to make fun of it.”

The Fevolas rekindled months after Brendan’s indiscretion and now live happily as a family with four daughters.

She said Brendan’s life had been unravelling, also revealing he had gambled away an entire year’s wages.

“To be clear 100 per cent of the fault lays with Brendan,’’ Alex said of the affair.

“He was the one who was married and in a relationship. I think what we went through at the time, he had to travel at the time and had gone to Ireland and he was unravelling himself.

“He wasn’t handling the pressure and the public profile. It was all too much.’

Alex Fevola does not put any blame on Lara Bingle for the affair. Picture: David Geraghty

“What people didn’t realise at the time — even myself — he was a kid from Narre Warren, he’d lived a very quiet life and he was suddenly thrust into this rock star world.

“It was a lot at the time. We ended up being separated and he was away for quite some time.

“Then we came back together and it was a very rocky period. It wasn’t like we got back together and everything was fabulous.

“We ended up back together back months later. It wasn’t a quick and easy fix.

“I felt everyone was just rolling their eyes and thinking I was an idiot.

“It was embarrassing. I did (love him) and I did it mainly for our children. Regardless of any issues we had when we were younger, he had always been an incredible dad. I felt like I was robbing them (the kids) and him because of my personal hang-ups.

“I felt an obligation for the family unit. In hindsight I probably should have taken more time then.

“It was that resentment and that unresolved anger that was still gnawing away at me.”